now he was on the mainland, in los angeles, at occidental coege. they called it oxy. >> he was the most casual, unpretentious, nicest guy. i mean, my indelible image of him was always in a hawaiian shirt, and some op shorts and flip-flops. i don't know that he had a long pair of pants during college. >> narrator: he'd come to oxy with an attitude straight from hawaii-- "cool head, main thing"-- a laid-back sensibility that didn't wear well with everyone. >> for the first time there are african-americans there, not in enormous number, but enough that there is... there is the kids from compton, om philadelphia, from la, from seattle. >> he was a white black kid, you know. and thatlaas meaning for us in the sense of he was black in skin color but he didn'tth necessarily identify with being, with his blackness with same way i did. >> they didn't think he was one of them. sort of a repetitive theme in his life after that. is he black enough? >> yes. there was some pushback from certain individuals that weren't, again, as open-mind to the world, who, no